The purpose of the behavioral core is to evaluate the functional status of neural circuitry following traumatic brain injury in rats and mice, by quantitatively assessing sensorimotor and cognitive behavioral endpoints. Paradigms are designed to assess neurobehavioral deficits associated with fluid percussive TBI in rats, and controlled cortical impact in mice, and to evaluate, when possible, the relation between neurobehavioral endpoints and neuropathological, neurophysiological, and molecular markers. The tests of sensorimotor integration and cognition used in the core have been demonstrated to be sensitive to insults produced by these TBI models, which, at moderate to severe levels of injury severity, produce overt pathology in the pariototemporal cortex, hippocampus and thalamus, and white matter.